MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that even before Lionel Messi joined MLS the league was seeing record attendanceGetty Images
The 2024 MLS season begins tonight with a standalone match featuring Inter Miami at home against Real Salt Lake. While the league is clearly looking to leverage the popularity of Inter Miami F Lionel Messi to attract eyeballs to its opener, MLS Commissioner Don Garber emphasized in an exclusive interview with SBJ that the league has a lot more going for it than just the presence of the Argentinian star.
“It's easy and somewhat lazy for reporters to just write about Messi -- it's like writing about Taylor Swift,” Garber said. “There's so much more here that I think people need to recognize.”
Garber pointed out that even before Inter Miami lured Messi to MLS -- with help from the league office and media partner Apple -- the league was seeing record attendance. The league is expecting to set another high-water mark for single-game attendance at the Rose Bowl this summer when the Galaxy and LAFC meet on July 4 before an expected crowd of more than 82,000 (eclipsing the record set by the same match last year).
In addition, while Apple played a key role in bringing Messi to MLS by granting him a share of international subscription revenue from MLS Season Pass, Garber noted the world’s largest tech company agreed to partner with the league well before Messi mania.
“Messi helped take this league to new heights and gave us momentum on a trajectory that was established in the years leading up to building a league that Messi would want to be a part of,” Garber said.
Click here to read the full transcript of Garber's season preview Q&A, as well as an abridged version in this week's issue.
